By David Gushee Augustine’s “Two Cities” theology of politics and history seems apropos today. The churches, motivated by love of God and neighbor, are called to join with their neighbors in pursuit of the contingent but significant common goods…
Texas Baptist paper develops FaithVillage online community
DALLAS — Baptist Standard Publishing is building a $5 million community — FaithVillage, an interactive Internet presence designed to provide high-quality Christian resources and a social network to serve 20 million evangelicals ages 18 to 44. The site will provide…
Member of N.C. paper’s board resigns in protest over editor’s treatment
MARION, N.C. (ABP) — A member of the board of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention’s newspaper has resigned to protest what she described as “pressure” on the paper's editor to slant the news. On Nov. 4, the Biblical Recorder published a resignation…
Iraqi Baptist pastor says Baghdad’s Christians living in fear after attack
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — A Baptist pastor in Baghdad told a European Baptist leader that Christians there are living in fear following an Oct. 31 attack on a Catholic church in Iraq's capital that left more than 50 dead….
Four Baptists arrested in Azerbaijan during raid on worship service
OSLO, Norway (ABP) — Four Baptists in Azerbaijan received five-day jail sentences Oct. 31 after a police raid on a harvest festival in a private home, according to an international news service that specializes in religious freedom. Forum 18, a…
Russian leaders decry arson attacks on Baptist, Orthodox churches
KARACHAYEVO-CHERKESSIA, Russia (ABP) — Political and religious leaders in Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus denounced arson attacks on two Russian Orthodox churches and one Baptist church overnight on Nov. 1. An Orthodox church in the village of Ordzhonikidzevsky in the…
Church implodes buildings to make way for $130 million project
DALLAS (ABP) — One of Southern Baptists’ most historic and prominent congregations has officially embarked — with four simultaneous Oct. 30 building implosions — on what it is calling the biggest church renovation-and-expansion project in modern history. An architect’s rendering…
Why do people leave churches?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Many churches and denominations put a lot of effort into attracting new members only to lose many of them through a “back door”—a term used to describe people who regularly attended a church in the past…
Study finds large churches can do better at retaining members
HARTFORD, Conn. — Large congregations are more likely than small churches to emphasize evangelism and recruitment of new members but significantly less likely to contact members who stop attending, according to a recent study. A little more than half of…